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Health Devotional
Do You Need a Heart Transplant?
And I will give you a new heart—I will give you new and right desires—and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love. Eze. 36:26, TLB.
Two babies were both destined to die from fatal congenital defects. One was already born; the other was still in his mother's womb.
Baby Gabrielle came into the world with the major part of her brain and skull absent. Even though her heart was healthy and pumping vigorously, no surgery or transplant could ever correct her terrible brain defect. She was about to die.
Baby Paul was diagnosed before birth with an underdevelopment of his left heart. No problems would develop as long as he remained in the uterus. But immediately after his birth he would need both sides of his heart. He too would die without treatment. The best chance for Paul was a heart transplant. His name went on the heart transplant waiting list.
Gabrielle's grief-stricken parents realized their daughter could not be saved. Perhaps her life could have some purpose if another baby, one who might also die, could be saved by receiving her healthy organs. Her parents decided that just as soon as brain death was apparent, they would give the ultimate gift, the gift of life, by offering her healthy heart to a baby who needed one. Death was declared within another day.
Baby Gabrielle's body and unborn Baby Paul, still in his mother's womb, were flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where the decision was made for Paul to receive Gabrielle's still-healthy heart. Baby Paul deteriorated so rapidly after birth that without Gabrielle's heart being immediately available he would certainly have died. Paul became the youngest heart transplant recipient ever attempted up to that time, receiving a new heart at the age of 90 minutes! As of this writing Paul is a healthy 8-year-old, his life made possible by Gabrielle's ultimate gift.
We may each be lost, as Baby Paul would have been, unless we receive a new heart—a new spiritual heart. Sin has flawed our hearts, but Christ offers us a new heart to replace our "heart of stone." Unlike Gabrielle, who had only one heart to give, our Saviour has no limit to the number of recipients He can provide for. While Gabrielle's gift will not last forever, the heart that God gives is designed to last throughout eternity.
Have you taken advantage of His transplant offer?
Two babies were both destined to die from fatal congenital defects. One was already born; the other was still in his mother's womb.
Baby Gabrielle came into the world with the major part of her brain and skull absent. Even though her heart was healthy and pumping vigorously, no surgery or transplant could ever correct her terrible brain defect. She was about to die.
Baby Paul was diagnosed before birth with an underdevelopment of his left heart. No problems would develop as long as he remained in the uterus. But immediately after his birth he would need both sides of his heart. He too would die without treatment. The best chance for Paul was a heart transplant. His name went on the heart transplant waiting list.
Gabrielle's grief-stricken parents realized their daughter could not be saved. Perhaps her life could have some purpose if another baby, one who might also die, could be saved by receiving her healthy organs. Her parents decided that just as soon as brain death was apparent, they would give the ultimate gift, the gift of life, by offering her healthy heart to a baby who needed one. Death was declared within another day.
Baby Gabrielle's body and unborn Baby Paul, still in his mother's womb, were flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where the decision was made for Paul to receive Gabrielle's still-healthy heart. Baby Paul deteriorated so rapidly after birth that without Gabrielle's heart being immediately available he would certainly have died. Paul became the youngest heart transplant recipient ever attempted up to that time, receiving a new heart at the age of 90 minutes! As of this writing Paul is a healthy 8-year-old, his life made possible by Gabrielle's ultimate gift.
We may each be lost, as Baby Paul would have been, unless we receive a new heart—a new spiritual heart. Sin has flawed our hearts, but Christ offers us a new heart to replace our "heart of stone." Unlike Gabrielle, who had only one heart to give, our Saviour has no limit to the number of recipients He can provide for. While Gabrielle's gift will not last forever, the heart that God gives is designed to last throughout eternity.
Have you taken advantage of His transplant offer?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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